We've been using ESPs more and more recently at MAGFest, we were up to 3,000 this year. We are considering a possible direction which would enable us to use many, many more, but we would need to do the two things described at the bottom of this message.

Additional PHY register documentation or an example of how early testing on the ESP8089 was performed using mask ROM functions would be needed.

Here are our concessions:

We do not need or want the management stack, no AP mode, no client mode, no LWIP, timers, or well anything else. All we actually need is enough to wake the PHY up, tune to a channel, and receive + send.

We don't even need to use standard channel widths, The BBPLL can operate the peripheral bus at just about any speed, as our actual data transfer will be on the order of at most one packet every few seconds.

We do not need a sensitive receiver. We can sacrifice sensitivity of 20db or more without any issue. All communication will be performed at distances of ~10 meters line of sight or less.

We can use any encoding or rate, Any 802.11 or CDMA coding schemes are totally good to go.

Here is what we would need to do:

1) Operate without flash. We would need to be able to store the program on another microcontroller and bootload it into the UART at boot to run. This would limit our program space to IRAM only. I understand the mask rom is riddled with bugs, and that's why it's not used, but if all we need to do is wake up the PHY, surely this would be an option.

2) Need to reduce RX power. Is there ANY PHY setting that would reduce current draw by 20mA or more with the receiver running, even at a significant cost to sensitivity, or receive sgnal integrity?

Documentation

About Us

Espressif Systems is a fabless semiconductor company providing cutting-edge low power WiFi SoCs and wireless solutions for wireless communications and Internet of Things applications. We are the manufacturer of ESP8266EX.